Fairytale Memories
by Biker Babe21
Summary: While bored on watch one night, Jester and Caleb start talking about fariytales. Caleb begins telling her one that he remembers from his childhood. Critical Role Campaign 2. Caleb Widogast and Jester Lavorre. Widojest.


**AN****: This was for Widojest Week Day 4: Fairytale. I originally had no idea for this prompt until I started looking at some old German fairytales. It was originally suppose to take another turn, but it kind of ran off on its own and I found it better to just run with it. I might post an update with the other idea at a later date, but I'm not sure yet. Anyways enjoy!**

**Fairy Tale Memories**

"Did your parents ever read you stories when you were little?" she asked. Her companion looked up from the book he was reading to turn his gaze at her. Not that he could really see her that well. The dim light from his rag covered dancing light ball could only illuminate so far.

"Ja, meine mutter and occasionally meine vater vould read to me."

"I bet you know all sorts of good Zemnian fairy tales then," the blue-skinned tiefling said. He nodded.

"I know a few." He went right back to his book as if to say that the conversation was over, but the persistent girl would not relent.

"Like what?" she asked. She was genuinely curious as to what a Zemnian fairy tale would be like. Sure she had heard her own fairy tales of grand palaces and faraway princes and princesses being rescued from high-towers and dragons, but she was equally sure that a Zemnian tale would definitely be different.

"Vell," he answered as he closed his book. He spun around in the dirt so that he was facing her and she mimicked the gesture.

"Zere vas zee story of zee children of Hamelin who vere lured by a piper and his magical music. Zen zere vas zee story of a king who captured a fair maiden and told her she vas to spin straw into gold," he told her.

"Straw into gold? That sounds like it'd be a lot of hard work," she commented. He let out a chuckle.

"It is actually quite impossible. But zankfully she had help from a magical imp zat she made a deal vith. He vould spin zee straw into gold and she vould gife up somesink in return."

"Like what?" Her eyes were alight with awe and delight, and Caleb wondered if she had ever heard this story before. It was certainly one his father enjoyed telling him, and one he enjoyed because of it.

"Vell zee first sink she vas to gife him vas her necklace, zee second vas her ring. By zee zird day zee king vas eager to marry her and told her zat if she vere to spin zis room's straw into gold zat zey vould be ved. If she could not she vould be executed." He couldn't help the smile teasing at his lips despite the horrible implications of his story so far.

"Oh noes! Poor girl!" Jester gasped. She placed both of her hands over her open mouth in shock. She was truly getting enraptured in this story, and for his part, Caleb was enjoying telling it to her if only to see her reaction to the story beats. She was the perfect listener, and he couldn't be happier. He wondered momentarily if this was how his parents had felt when they were telling him stories when he was a boy. A smile crossed his lips for the briefest of moments as a flood of fondness and sadness washed over him at the same time.

"Zee imp agreed to spin zee straw into gold zis vone last time, and she told him zat she had nosink left vith vhich to gife him."

"Oh no! What did she do?"

"He told her zat he vould do his little trick if only she vould gife him her firstborn child," he explained.

"Oh no, her firstborn! You know I never understood why a lot, well maybe not a lot a lot, but like a lot of stories threaten to kill or like hurt someone's firstborn. But why?" He chuckled.

"I'm not sure, Jester," he said with a shrug. He didn't continue with his story straight away and she shifted impatiently.

"Come on, go on with the story. What happened to the girl and to her firstborn? Did she accept his deal?" she begged. He chuckled again. He was doing that an awful lot tonight. She was so eager to know the rest of the story, and he couldn't be happier to hold all the cards. He could change the story if he so chose, and she would be none the wiser. Not that he would do that, but the idea did run its course through his mind.

"Zee fair maiden did in fact take zee deal vith zee strange little imp. So zis imp used his magic and spun zee straw into gold. And zee king saw zis and vas immediately happy. Zey vere married zee next day. Seferal monzs later zee girl became pregnant and gafe birth to a healzy child."

"Did the imp come back?"

"Ja. He did, and he demanded zee child from her. She refused and instead offered him all zee wealth in zee kingdom, vhich he did not vant. Zey argued for a vhile before comink to anozer agreement. If she could guess his name correctly vithin zree days time he vould rescind his original deal and she could keep her child. Zee first day he came to her and she guessed a name, and he shook his head. 'Zat's not my name. You hafe two more days,' he told her. He came back zee next day and again she guessed a name. And again she vas vrong. She vas losink hope zat she vould efer figure out zee imp's name. She vas so upset zat she vould be losink her child zat she took a valk zhrough zee voods. She kept vanderink for hours until she finally came upon a remote mountain cottage," he paused here to take a breath. Jester was staring at him in rapt attention. Her hands rested on her chin and her tail was twitching in anticipation. Anyone who knew Caleb knew that he hated being the center of attention, but now having Jester's full attention didn't bother him as much as it normally would.

"She also saw a fire burnink. She crept to zee fire and saw zee imp dancink and singink around it. He sang, 'Tonight, tonight, my plans I make. Tomorrow, tomorrow, zee baby I take. Zee queen vill nefer vin zee game. For Rumpelstilzchen is my name.' Zee queen snuck back zee vay she came. She vould be ready for zee little imp vhen he came zee next day. So he came to her zee follovink day, and she pretended to not know vat his name vas for a moment or two before finally refealink zat she knew his name to be Rumpelstilzchen."

"I bet he was preeety mad about that," Jester said.

"Ja, he vas. He lost his temper and accused her of cheatink, vhich she denied. Vith her tellink him his name zeir bargain from earlier vas broken and zee little imp stormed off in anger, nefer to be seen again. And zat's zee end of zee story," he told her. A round of enthusiastic applause sounded from all around him. He cried out a curse in Zemnian in alarm. With himself so focused on telling the story and on staring at Jester, he hadn't noticed his party's members had all woken up to listen to his story. Beau's laughter was what clued him in on that little fact.

"That was a mighty fine bit of story telling there, Caleb," Fjord complimented.

"Yeah, it was nice," Caduceus added.

"We should do this more often," Nott suggested.

"What? Tell stories to each other?" Beau asked. She nodded.

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Don't know," Beau said with a shrug.

"Well, I liked the story," Yasha said shyly. Jester nodded eagerly in agreement.

"Ja, me too!" she was only too happy to add. She grinned broadly at him.

"And the storytelling was really good too!" she added with a wink. Caleb was truly a brilliant shade of vermillion now. He didn't want the others to know that it wasn't just because of his shame at having his secret storytelling be found out.

"Well, let's get on the road again! Daylight's wasting," Beau commanded as she stretched her arms to the sky. As her words, the rest of the Nein scattered and went about their own preparations for the day. It was then that he realized that his ever present dome had long disappeared and that the sun had already risen. How was it that his keen mind neglected to remind him of the time when he was telling his story? He had a few ideas as to why, but the most prominent one buzzing in his skull was the presence of the blue skinned tiefling still hovering next to him.

"Did you need somesink, Jester?" he asked.

"No. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your story, Cayleb. It was really nice, and I especially liked hearing you tell it. I've always liked your accent," she whispered shyly. A flush appeared on both their faces simultaneously.

"I like your accent as vell, Jester. I alvays hafe," he confessed. She smiled and he smiled back.

"I hope we can do this again soon. It was really fun," she admitted. He nodded. She came up beside him and leaned down to place a gentle peck onto his cheek. His cheeks only turned a deeper shade of crimson as he shyly smiled at her. She helped him to his feet and the two parted ways with a final smile.


End file.
